French runner collapses, stretchered away as Kenyan kicks to 10,000m gold
PARIS: The women's 10,000m final was marred by a confronting moment in which a Frenchwoman collapsed and was stretchered from the track, before Kenyan Beatrice Chebet won her second gold medal of the Games.
Alessia Zarbo was seven kilometres in when she collapsed at the Stade de France on Saturday morning (AEST).
Medical staff rushed to the 22-year-old's aid to assist her, doing so in the third lane, and she was stretchered away as the lead pack whisked by.
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Four days after claiming 5000m gold, Chebet completed the long-distance double when she kicked to victory in 30 minutes, 43.25 seconds (30:30.25).
Frenchwoman Alessia Zarbo is attended to by medical staff after collapsing during the women's 10,000m final in Paris. Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Italian Nadia Battocletti finished just 0.10 of a second behind to snare silver as the Netherlands' Sifan Hassan clocked 30:44.12 to collect bronze.
Hassan now has two bronze medals from the Paris Games, having finished third in the 5000m and 10,000m, and is set to round out a brutal schedule in the marathon on Sunday afternoon (AEST).
Australian Lauren Ryan was with the lead pack for the first half of the race, and even spent just over a lap in the lead, but faded to finish 13th in 31:13.25.
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Earlier in the track and field program, the Melbourne product was eliminated in the heats of the 5000m when she finished 13th in 15:29.35.
"I felt like everything was in place to have a great race and I feel like that's what we did; I executed the race probably as well as I could have," Ryan told reporters in the media mixed zone.
"My coach [Lara Rogers] probably was like, 'Don't lead it', but I felt comfortable enough to do it and I think it paid off, because we lost a bunch of girls and it made the pack a lot smaller when it got to the end."
Ryan became the 10,000m national record holder in California in March, running a time of 30:35.36 to break Benita Willis' 20-year record.
Australia's Lauren Ryan leading the pack in Paris. Hannah Peters/Getty Images
"I feel like I ran the shortest run," the Olympic debutant said of her 10,000m run in Paris.
"I sat as close [as possible] to the inside for the majority of the race. I feel like at that point there were a couple of girls who got to me, and I tried to run wide with my elbows so I could stay in my place, but it got to the point where I just got pushed to the front, and I was like, 'All right, here we are, let's take it on a little'. Then another girl came around me after 400 or 500 [metres] in the lead and I was honestly happy to slow down.
"It paid off, I couldn't ask for much more, so I'm really happy with that one."
